Hookah services offered in some pubs and cafes in Chennai, alleges PIL in Madras High Court

The Madras High Court has sought the response of Director General of Police (DGP)/Head of Police Force (HoPF) as well as the Greater Chennai Commissioner of Police to a public interest litigation petition alleging illegal offer of hookah services in some of the pubs and cafes in the city.

First Division Bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan ordered notices, returnable by November 19, to the two top police officers, the Commissioner of Prohibition and Excise and the individual pubs and cafes named in the PIL plea.

B. Mughundhan, a 27-year-old advocate, had filed the case claiming he had witnessed the alleged illegality in at all those pubs and cafes. He contended the illegality on such a scale could not thrive in the heart of the city without the connivance of the officials concerned.

Illegal act

The petitioner stated the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco products Act (COTPA), 2022 explicitly prohibits the serving of hookah in bars, pubs, cafes and similar establishments. Section 21A of the Act prescribes a maximum punishment of three years of imprisonment for running a hookah bar.

Yet, a significant number of pubs and cafes in the city had flagrantly disregarded the law and were offering hookah services. These establishments had also advertised about the services offered by them in the social media, the petitioner complained and produced some of the screenshots.

Further, relying upon a few photographs shot during his visit to the pubs and cafes, the litigant said, a coffee shop located in a residential area in Alwarpet offers hookah services in secrecy in a separate enclosure and uses the CCTV footage to conceal the instruments on spotting suspicious persons.

Another cafe at Teynampet provides a menu card containing the flavours of hookah offered by them but the staff take away the card immediately after the order gets placed. “The establishment also hires bouncers to intimidate and chase away suspicious persons,” the petitioner said.

He said, a cafe on Royapettah High Road in Mylapore poses to be a vegetarian lounge/restaurant offering pizza and pasta but ends up offering nothing but hookah services along with aerated drinks and water bottles only to unsuspicious and regular customers.

Listing out similar modus operandi followed by a cafe in Thousand Lights and a rooftop restaurant on Kodambakkam High Road in Nungambakkam, the advocate sought a direction to the police to crack down on all pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes which offer hookah services.